


I. Larva

by erraticvariable



Series: Holometabolism [1]
Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-23
Updated: 2010-02-23
Packaged: 2017-10-07 12:17:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erraticvariable/pseuds/erraticvariable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ghost stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I. Larva

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rymenhild](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rymenhild/gifts).



"Say," Lilie wondered, "have you ever heard about the seven secrets of this school?"

"No, and I don't see why I should," Pique argued. It was an unholy hour of the night, and both of them should've asleep already if they were to attend classes in the morning. And yet she had let Lilie keep her up talking about nonsense.

"You do know how every school has seven secrets, do you?"

"Not our school," mumbled Pique, who didn't knew and certainly didn't care. "It's too boring to have even five."

"Okay, so I haven't found all seven yet. Maybe three, at most. But—" Lilie produced a flashlight and turned it on right under her face.

"Don't start—"

"I sure can tell you about the ghosts," she finished on her best spooky voice.

The hairs in the back of Pique's neck stood for absolutely no good reason. "You can't, because there isn't such thing as ghosts."

"Yeah?" Lilie inclined forward with an evil smile. "So you've never turned around ready to talk to _someone_ only to realize there was no one there, and you couldn't remember whom you wanted to talk to, or even why you wanted to in the first place?" She was pretty much ecstatic with suspense.

"It was only this once! And for your information, that's a regular thing and happens everywhere, not just in haunted houses -or schools- and dumb things like that." The wind was really picking up now. Pique realized she was paying way too much attention to every little noise behind the window, listening for something unusual.

"Sure, whatever. Just like how birds keep flocking to that empty room in our floor. There's a perfectly normal reason for that, too."

"Since you ask, there is one. I feed them, 'cos I felt bad about the poor things who kept showing up there day by day..."

"Yes?" Lilie jumped on her unfinished sentence like a hungry tiger on its prey. "Were you about to say, perhaps, _as if they were waiting for someone who wasn't there?_

"So what if that's what it looks like? It's impossible. That room's been unoccupied since forever."

"And why would birds flock to a room where no one lived, expecting to be fed? That's very curious, don't you think?"

"Oh, shut up! There could be a million reasons why." The only sounds out there were the wind shaking some tree branches, a perfectly natural sound and not spooky at all, and the occasional animal. Nothing to be afraid of. "Maybe someone had that room before we came here, and the birds remembered. Maybe they're just dumb birds with tiny brains doing stupid things that make no sense. But it doesn't have to be a supernatural explanation! At all."

"Look, I get it. It's okay if you want to pretend there isn't a lot of times when you could swear there was a student doing this or sleeping there or going somewhere or saying that, but there's no one there and never was. It _is_ quite disquieting." Lilie gave a look around, as if even she was getting scared of her silly stories, which couldn't be true since they were all made up by her.

"I can tell you're doing this just to rile me up. People can't just disappear, you know! It goes against the laws of physics and stuff."

"Well, yes. That's the disquieting part!" She was getting way too excited about this. "If there's absolutely no rational explanation to be found, the reason has to be supernatural. Like Sherlock Holmes said."

"You're misquoting it." Pique crossed her arms in frustration.

"You know," Lilie continued undeterred, "people used to believe the spirits of the dead would arise and come after them. And not the regular dead either, but the really bad ones."

"People also believed that the Earth was the center of the universe." Lilie was about to open her mouth again, but Pique cut her. "And don't tell me the existence of ghosts hasn't been disproven."

"I was just going to say the spirits were supposed to be invisible, and so you could never tell when one was close..." Despite herself, Pique shivered. "And the only thing that could get rid of them were beans."

"Wait. _Beans?_ That's dumb. I mean, even dumber than the rest."

"If you can use garlic against vampires," Lilie retorted, "why not beans against ghosts?"

"Because vampires aren't real. And neither are ghosts, for that matter." Pique glanced at the clock and almost got more scared of the time than of any evil dead spirits. "This is stupid and pointless and we have classes tomorrow, so I'm leaving now. Also, you won't get me to say I'm scared of your tales, and if you even think I'm going to go around with beans in my pocked to ward of imaginary ghosts, forget it."

But Pique stared at the door without getting up and leaving.

"If you really don't want to go out in the scary, dark hallway, I don't mind sharing my bed," Lilie offered very selflessly.

It was totally unfair, then, how she got a pillow in the face for all her trouble.

**Author's Note:**

> Image used with permission.


End file.
